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103 When this study was conducted computational thinking skills had been introduced.
Problems
There are many issues facing the introduction of ICT for Year 6 students. Many teachers claim they were unable to attend any course or Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for this subject, so most of the time teachers just teach ICT by referring to the DKSP document and the textbook. When it comes to topic programming with Scratch 2.0 many teachers said they cannot teach their pupils except at a very basic level.
The school at which this study was undertaken has a computer lab that can accommodate 35 students at a time, but it does not have a computer technician. The personal computers and notebooks provided by MOE at this time are sufficient for only 25 users.
Preliminary investigation
A survey and interviews were conducted to determine the students’ level of learning about programming with Scratch 2.0 that had being taught by the teacher. The researchers wanted to know the level of skill mastered by Year 6 pupils for programming using Scratch 2.0.
The teacher of Year Six was interviewed. He stated this subject was taught in September after the national examinations had finished. He had shown the pupils about ten minutes of a YouTube video of games developed by others and interfaces of Scratch 2.0. None of the PCs and notebooks had Scratch 2.0 installed because the school does not have a technician and the nearest Teachers Activities Centre (Pusat Kegiatan Guru/PKG) officer will only come to install the software if an official letter is written. Researcher decided to install Scratch 2.0 and teach basic Scratch 2.0 to an intact group of Year Six pupils.
Purpose of the study
The researcher investigated the use of Ausubel’s Advance Organizer instructional design model together with Mayer’s (2001) Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning to deliver instruction in Basic Scratch 2.0 programming language.
Research objectives
The study objectives were:
1. To design an effective instructional delivery model for a two hour teaching and learning session for the subject ICT and investigate the development of CT in Year 6 pupils.
2. To study scores of the two assignments of the Year 6 learners after the two hour lesson.
Method
Students were required to do:
• Assignment 1: Write a programming code with single option using suitable features (blocks in Scratch 2.0) using the arrow key to move an object to the left, right, up and down.
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• Assignment 2: Write a programming code to add a beach ball to Assignment 1 on the same stage and make it bounce when it touched the edge.
Advance organizers (AO)
In this study, the researcher chose the AO model as an instructional model for delivering instruction. An advance organizer is a cognitive learning aid that helps students “integrate new information with their existing knowledge, leading to ‘meaningful learning’ as opposed to rote memorization”. The primary idea of AO theory is that learning of new knowledge is dependent on what is already known.
According to Ausubel, using an advance organizer is important for teachers to:
• Provide a preview of information to be learned by providing a brief introduction about the way that information that is going to be presented.
• Link old information to something new being taught, which helps students to recognize that the topic they are beginning to learn is not totally new, but can be related to a previously learned concept or process.
The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML)
The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning presupposes the human information processing system contains two channels for learning: visual (pictorial) and auditory (verbal). Each channel has the capacity to process information.
According to Mayer (2001), students will learn more effectively and more easily, and remember the information communicated when the information is presented in two forms, namely visual and verbal channels.
Five steps are involved in multimedia learning and cognitive processes that will produce meaningful learning:
1. Selecting a related word to be processed in the verbal working memory.
2. Selecting the image related to processing in the visual working memory.
3. Organizing the selected word to the verbal mental model. Here students will build relationships between bits of verbal knowledge.
4. Organizing selected image into a visual mental mode.
5. Integrating verbal and visual representation with existing knowledge. (Mayer, 2001).
A pre-test consisting of a checklist of 10 items was administrated to examine the students’
learning level in Scratch 2.0. The same test was administered as a post-test after the instruction.
105 Analysis of data
The details below show the mean and standard deviation (sd) for both the pre-test and post-test:
Pre-test 1 mean= .00 (sd= .00) and Post-test 1 mean= 8.25 (sd= .72) Pre-test 2 mean=3.00 (sd=.00) and Post-test 2 mean=8.15 (sd.67)
A paired sample t-test was conducted to compare the results between pre-test and post-test scores for Assignment 1 and pre-test and post-test scores for Assignment 2.
There was a statistically significant difference in the score of Assignment 1 (M=8.25, SD=.72) t(19)=-51.50, p=.001.
There was a statistically significant difference in the score of Assignment 2 (M=5.15, SD=.67) t(19)=-34.33, p=.001.
Discussion and conclusion
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using Ausubel’s Advance Organizer model together with Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning in teaching basic Scratch 2.0 programming language to Year 6 students studying ICT.
Implications of the study
This study has resulted in the following contributions to knowledge and development:
• Firstly, the AO instructional model and two principles of the CTML that were used resulted in gain scores for both assignments. This is in line with the use of an expository organizer as suggested by Ausubel when students are facing new learning materials.
• Secondly, in this study the characteristics of learners were not considered due to the limited time allocated. For research in education it is appropriate to consider psychological attributes and cognitive styles of students because these could play a role in the effectiveness of instruction delivered.
• Thirdly, this study acts as a pioneer in looking at the effectiveness of instructional system designs on ICT and CT at one school in Penang. This study could be further expanded in the near future, as CT across the curriculum will be implemented in all government schools by January 2017.
• Fourthly, the use of AO and CTML proved to be successful for the basic learning of Scratch 2.0 and as a method of instruction used in delivering this topic. This study can be the starting point for teachers’ training to deliver instruction in a Scratch 2.0 lesson.
106 References
Alessi, S. M., & Trollip, S. R. Multimedia For Learning: Method and Development (3rd ed.).
Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon.
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http://kb.edu.hku.hk/advance_organizers.html
Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum, K. P. (2014). Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Kebangsaan, Teknologi Maklumat Dan Komunikasi Tahun 6. Putrajaya: Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia.
Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum, K. P. (2016). Rancangan Pengajaran Tahunan (RPT) Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah. Putrajaya: Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia.
Computational Thinking. (2016, November 17). Retrieved from, QuickStart Computing.org:
http://primary.quickstartcomputing.org/resources/pdf/comp_thinking.pdf CS4FN. (2016, October 27). Retrieved from, Computer Science For Fun:
http://www.cs4fn.org/computationalthinking/
Mayer, R. (2001). Multimedia Learning. California: Cambridge University Press.
What Teacher Should Know About Learning Theories. (2016, November 03). Retrieved from, The University of Hong Kong: http://kb.edu.hku.hk/instructional_approach.html Wikipedia.org. (2016, October 12). Retrieved from,
wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_thinking:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_thinking
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